The transfer of information over computer networks is an important way by which institutions, corporations, and individuals conduct business. Computer networks have grown over the years from independent and isolated entities established to serve the needs of a single group into vast internets that interconnect disparate physical networks and allow them to function as a coordinated system. Currently, the largest computer network is the Internet, a worldwide interconnection of computer networks that communicate using a common protocol.
The Internet has transformed into a global marketplace of goods and services, driven in large part by the introduction of the World Wide Web (“the web”), an information system. Computers connected to the Internet may access web pages via a browser program, which has a powerful, simple-to-learn graphical user interface. In a web-based search on an Internet search engine, a user enters a search term of one or more keywords, which the search engine then uses to generate a listing of web pages that the user may access via a hyperlink. The search engines often generate irrelevant search results. The search results may be generated by mechanisms that often rely on blind mathematical formulas and may be random.
Internet network information providers should be able to control their placement in search result listings so that their listings are prominent in searches that are relevant to the content of their web site. The search engine functionality of the Internet should be focused to facilitate an on-line marketplace that offers searchers quick, easy and relevant search results while providing Internet network information providers with a cost-effective way to target consumers. A consumer utilizing a search engine that facilitates this on-line marketplace finds companies or businesses that offer the products, services, or information that the searcher is seeking. In the on-line marketplace, companies providing products, services, or information bid in an open auction-based ranking environment for ranks on a search result list generated by an Internet search engine.
Under some known auction-based search engines, a network information provider's rank in a search result list can change continuously since other network information providers may bid on a new rank at any time. The continuously changing ranks in a search result list can cause uncertainty for a network information provider, including uncertainty in the number of user visits that will result, and uncertainty in the total cost for the network information provider.
Moreover, operators of some known auction-based search engines may be losing potential revenue. Operators of such search engines typically get paid based, at least in part, on the amount bid for a rank on the list and the number of times searchers select the advertisement by clicking through to the network information provider. For example, the searcher clicks through by clicking on the advertisement in the search result list with a mouse. As a result, the operator of the search engine monitors the click throughs to the network information provider. Constant monitoring expends the operator's resources and time and may lower the operator's revenue. The operator may also wish to monitor click throughs to ensure that the network information provider is not charged for fraudulent clicks. Checking for fraudulent clicks may also expend the operator's time and resources. Moreover, known systems may allow for collusive agreements among network information providers to keep bid amounts low and thus lower the income of the operator.
Thus, there is a need for an alternative system and method for an auction-based ranking of search results on a computer network.